


snip, snip, uh oh feelings

by angelheartbeat



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Good Sibling Allison Hargreeves, Good Sibling Diego Hargreeves, Haircuts, Light Angst, Post-Season/Series 02, Sibling Bonding, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25669534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelheartbeat/pseuds/angelheartbeat
Summary: It's late at night when Allison wanders into the kitchen for a glass of water, and instead encounters her brother peering at himself in a small mirror, attacking his shaggy mess of hair with kitchen scissors.Allison cuts Diego's hair.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves, Raymond Chestnut/Allison Hargreeves
Comments: 22
Kudos: 313





	snip, snip, uh oh feelings

**Author's Note:**

> this is set after s2 but in a timeline where theres no sparrow academy or anything + theyre all staying in the house for a bit idk lol
> 
> spoilers, obviously

It's late at night when Allison wanders into the kitchen for a glass of water, and instead encounters her brother peering at himself in a small mirror, attacking his shaggy mess of hair with kitchen scissors. She stares at him in mild disappointment for a minute or so.

"Are you trying to give yourself _bangs_?" she eventually asks, and Diego startles, brandishing the scissors at her instinctively, before registering that it's her and lowering his makeshift weapon.

"Trying to get it out my damn face," he complains, going back to chopping at his hair haphazardly. He has absolutely no idea what he's doing, that much is evident. Allison clicks her tongue and walks over to him.

"Scissors," she says, holding out her hand, and Diego stares at it apprehensively. Impatiently, she taps her fingers to her palm, and he grumbles and drops the scissors into her hand.

She casts an eye over his hair, which he's made a mess of already, and sighs. "How short were you trying to make it?"

Diego shrugs stiffly. "Don't know," he mumbles. "Just less annoying. Grew out too much at the, uh. In the 60s."

Quietly, Allison fills in the blank of _asylum_ , and chooses instead to push his head forward and start snipping at the back of his hair. It won't be her best work, done at 2am with blunted kitchen scissors, but it'll sure be better than whatever Diego was going to have deemed acceptable.

She's been cutting for about two minutes before Diego clears his throat. "Um. Thank you," he says awkwardly, and she smiles at him in the little mirror on the table.

"What are sisters for?" she asks, brushing hair away from Diego's collar with her fingers. He flinches and shudders slightly. She doesn't think it's because her fingers are cold. "You okay?"

"Fine," Diego replies brusquely, and of course she shouldn't have expected emotional vulnerability from _Diego_ , of all people. But then he softens, and glances at her in the mirror. "Are you okay?"

It's only then that Allison realises her face is pinched slightly, brows drawn together, causing a slight wrinkle. She rubs at it. "Good enough."

"Better than not at all," Diego replies with a hollow chuckle, and Allison exhales.

She continues to cut in silence, disturbed only by the ticking of a clock and Diego's occasional sniffs and shuffles in his chair. 

"What was Raymond like?" Diego asks suddenly, and it's Allison's turn to startle and accidentally lop off a little more than she intended to. She frowns at it, carding her fingers through his hair in an attempt to hide it. 

"He was perfect," she says wistfully, as she tries to fix the slightly too short patch. "Funny, kind, loving. Fiercely passionate." She sighs. "I miss him a lot."

"Wish I'd met him for longer," Diego mumbles. "Sounds like a good guy."

Allison hums. There's an aching spot in her heart set aside for Raymond Chestnut, and her wedding ring glints at her in the low light. A year was never quite enough. "He was," she eventually says, moving Diego's head to the side to get at a different angle. Diego doesn't push further.

"I think the long hair suited you," she continues, when the silence stretches out to uncomfortable levels. Diego grunts, fiddling with the holster strapped to his thigh. He's still fully kitted out in black and leather, which makes a stark contrast to Allison's powder blue pyjamas and slippers. Hair is all over the floor, and Allison makes a mental note to tidy up before they both go to bed.

She pushes his head again to re-angle herself, but perhaps she pushes a bit too hard. Diego flinches, immediately tensed. "Sorry," she whispers, and he relaxes. His fists are still clenched, though, white-knuckled and scared. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Just bad memories," Diego scowls, remembering clinical white rooms and being slammed against tables and needles the size of pencils. "Keep going."

Allison hesitates, but shifts his head, gentler this time. The steady _snip, snip, snip_ of the scissors accompanies the ticking clock as locks of wiry hair tumble to the floor. Their time in the sixties had changed them all. Allison could see it in the way Klaus newly cringed at TLC songs and clutched dog tags for hours on end, the way Vanya would gaze at her own hands and stroke the callouses on her fingertips, the way Luther had gone and sat in Dad's study for hours after their return. The way Diego's stutter was cropping up more frequently, and he'd mumble curses and admonitions to himself, hand resting on the scar on his stomach. The way Five would sit at the counter and stare numbly at his coffee cup, and sometimes if he seemed a little itchier than usual nobody mentioned it. The way none of them ever talk about Ben.

Allison chose to think about Raymond. Just Raymond, and her, twirling in their little kitchen to a song crooning from the radio. There were good changes, too. They couldn't forget that.

Diego's hair is much shorter now, and neat at the sides. She takes a step back, and nods appraisingly at her handiwork. He runs a hand through it, and fights back a smile.

"Thanks, Sunny," he says, bringing out a nickname she's hardly heard since childhood. She couldn't stop her smile if she'd wanted to.

"Do me a favour," she says, as she starts hunting around for the broom, and Diego turns to look at her quizzically. "Start using proper shampoo, will you? I know you use dish soap, Diego. It doesn't work."

"They both make bubbles," Diego points out. Allison rolls her eyes, retrieving the broom and a dustpan and sweeping up the hair. 

"And you get offended when Five insults your intelligence."

"Piss off," says Diego, but there's no real bite to it. "I'll buy some shampoo."

Allison smiles at her little brother - because he is her little brother, now. It's odd to think, considering how much time they'd spent being a big pack of septuplets, that they had an age order now. That Allison was a big sister in years, not just in maturity - and even weirder, that _Klaus_ was the oldest now (besides Five, of course, who sat in a weird dead zone where none of them could quite get past his teenaged looks). That Diego, who'd spent his entire life seething over being Number Two, was now their little brother who chose to throw their numbers away. She's proud of him.

"Get some sleep," she tells him, leaning in to kiss his cheek after tossing the hair in the trash.

"You too," says Diego, staring at his newly shorter hair in the mirror and running his hands through it. Allison watches him for a second before turning to fill a glass of water. She leaves him sat alone in the kitchen, staring at the mirror like his reflection is a stranger, and heads back to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> ive never written tua fic b4 im hoping i did them right lol
> 
> many thoughts on s2 head full
> 
> i am on tumblr under @thoriffix come yell in my inbox abt tua lol
> 
> comments shank my heart (with love)


End file.
